This invention relates to the field of pillows, and more particularly, to the field of abdominal support pillows for pregnant women, over weight people and otherwise regular people who suffer from back pain.
Citizens of the United States spend eleven percent of the nation's gross national product on hospital and medical care. The United States has more doctors and hospitals that nearly any other industrialized nation, and yet the United Nations World Health Organization continually rates the population of the United States as having one of the lowest general health indexes in the world.
The symptoms of bad health and poor physical condition are the end result of the body's inability to function properly. Currently, if you are a pregnant woman, an obese person, an athlete, an individual who suffers from back pain, sleep apnea, snoring or sciatica, your ability to lay on your stomach is greatly diminished. The posture that is assumed during pregnancy, or in the obese, creates hyper-extension in the low back region, causing jamming of the thoracolumbar facets, posterior narrowing of the disc space and myospasms in the erector spinae muscles. Sciatica, and lower back pain, are usually caused by misalignment of bones, nerve interference and vertebral subluxation.
Currently, society's (doctor's) emphasis has been on the removal of symptoms, rather than on creating an environment in which the body can function as close to 100% as possible, without intrusive and costly medical procedures. In addition, while pillows, and in particular, pillows that provide additional support or cushioning to those areas of a person's body where he/she is experiencing pain, are old in the art, most do not serve the function of helping to fix the problem, or relieve the pain, but only address the short term; i.e., comfort during sitting or laying down. In particular, today, support and comfort pillows are used in a variety of different ways; under one's head while he/she sleeps, behind one's back as he/she sits on a chair (for lumbar support), along one's body while he/she sleeps on his/her side, under one's buttocks while sitting, and even under one's knees while laying on one's back.
Today's pillows are also made from a wide variety of different materials; from fowl feathers, synthetic fibers and foam, for the internal stuffing of a pillow, to natural cottons and wools, synthetic fibers and a combination of natural and synthetic fibers, for the outside covering (if there is to be one). Pillows also come in many varied and different shapes and sizes, depending upon the purpose of the pillow, the comfort level sought, and/or often simply for style.
The prior art even discusses the existence of pillows which appear to serve one of the intended purpose of the subject invention; abdominal support for pregnant women wishing, or needing, to lie prone, on their stomachs for comfort, or while at a doctor's/chiropractor's office. In this regard, one is directed to the inventions disclosed in the U.S. patents to Singer-Leyton et al. and Wall, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,504,953 and 4,944,059, entitled, respectively, Cushion Support for a Person During Massage, and Prenatal Body Support.
The Singer-Leyton et al. pillow is of less relevance to the subject invention, since its desired effect is to provide a general recess 12 of which the purpose is simply to provide a space for a pregnant user's hyper-extended abdomen, while the person is lying prone for a massage. Since the Singer-Leyton pillow is for the simple purpose of comfort for a pregnant woman during massage, and not, as is the purpose of the subject invention, for back rehabilitation (whether that rehabilitation is due to the person simply lying in a proper, relief position, or due to a doctor/chiropractor working on the prone person), the Singer-Leyton pillow has different construction attributes. In particular, Singer-Leyton has a complicated raised head and neck support structure and lower body/leg support structure, resulting in the prone person's body being disposed so that her head, neck, back, buttock and leg regions are all in a substantially horizontal plane; all for the purpose of giving a proper massage.
Of more particular relevance to the subject invention, is the patent to Wall. In Wall, lower back pressure, weight relieving prenatal support, and, even, back rehabilitation, are provided. While the subject invention achieves results, and is partially for a purpose similar to that of Wall, these purposes are achieved through a different construction than that used and claimed in Wall.
To achieve its purposes, Wall discloses a head support portion H, constructed integrally with support A. Wall also discloses receipt of the woman's breasts into recess R, along with her abdomen, and a non-uniform height for the support, generally sloping downward from support portion P, along portions L to head support portion H. In contrast, the subject invention invents away from the teaching of Wall.
The subject invention simplifies the construction of the Wall invention by eliminating the need for a head support, a recess capable of receiving the woman's breasts, and a sloping support structure. In addition, the subject invention, by eliminating a breast receiving recess and a head support, is much smaller in overall size than the Wall invention, enabling the subject pillow to be routinely portable by the user to any and all locations. Such portability ensures the user's access to the relief the pillow gives no matter where the user goes. In particular, throughout any day, and in any location, the user of the subject invention can gently and securely realign his/her lower back, create slight pelvic traction, and create more room between his/her chest and the platform he/she is lying on for easier breathing and less rotation of his/her cervical spine.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a pillow that supports pregnant women, obese, back-pain suffering, sleep apnea suffering and sciatica suffering people, while they are lying in a prone position, which pillow simplifies past constructions of such pillows in such a way as to make them more accessible for regular use in any and all locations.